Well the race started at 3PM as planned and although the rain has held off, the biggest surprise at the start of the race was the leader blowing a water pipe and needing to return to the pits resulting in loosing valuable time.
Our favored Nissan Team has had a dificult time with the Black 350Z visiting the garage for several repairs, and is as we speak (4 hours in) currently in the pits.
The white car has also had some problems relating to fuel but it is expected that this can be fixed.
Industry leaders PlayStation and Nissan have come together to create the ultimate competitive driving test – GT Academy. The eight-month, pan-European competition sees virtual and real-life racing merge to make the wildest dreams of two aspiring race drivers come true. The prize: a four-month training programme to earn their racing licences, followed by a real-life race driving a Nissan 350Z as part of the Nissan team at the 24H endurance race in Dubai in January 2009.
Today on the morning of the Nurbrugring 24 hour race Nissan and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, chose the Nurburgring, as the Venue to offically announce the launch of the competition.
To earn a place in GT Academy, candidates will face a series of elimination-based competitions on and off the racetrack – starting at a national level with an online GT5 Prologue tournament hosted on PLAYSTATION®Network.
GT Academy builds on the long-standing partnership between PlayStation and Nissan that began with Nissan working with Gran Turismo developers Polyphony Digital. Nissan provided vehicles, racing drivers and feedback to help perfect the game’s ultra-realistic driving simulation.
Entrants must register, via their PS3s, on the PLAYSTATION®Network (PSN) to compete in the special online tournament. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue on PS3 has sold over one million units since its launch, with the Gran Turismo franchise now having sold more than 50 million units worldwide.
To see the podcast of the launch presentation click on the video link below.
Qualification began this morning for the 230 plus entrants at this years ADAC 24hr De Rennen. As always our interest was with the boys over at Nissan Motorsports, namely RJN Motorsport. With 2 entries in the race we are hoping for good results.
Unfortunately a problem was found on the black car. After a thorough inspection it was found to be an oil leak and the team set to fixing it. This will mean that they will miss tonights night time qualifying session, but it will give the team a chance to rest overnight rather than work straight through and finish just before the begining of the race tomorrow.
Speaking to Team owner Bob Neville, he was confident that the problem would be fixed and the more powerful of the two cars would make the starting grid tomorrow afternoon.
The white car on the other hand, has been running like a dream and the team is happy that they have a good package, now that they have upgraded the car from the traditional manual box to a new state of the art 6 speed sequential.
The Creator of Gran Turismo 5 Kazanuri Yamauchi, was given a very special chance to drive the new Nissan GT-R on the Nurburgring. Kaz was handed the keys of one of only 2 offical road registered cars in Europe. Then more spectacularly, he was allowed to take it out for a quick blast of the Nurburgring Nordschleife.
As ever we were there to capture the moment they allowed him out to play on the ring. Giles Meyrick, quickly grabbed some shots of the game designer setting the car up just the way he liked it.
However even famous game designers have to wait their turn at the moment and Kaz was not allowed out until the previous single seater race had finished.
When he was finally allowed, it was very clear from the look on his face that he was excited by the prospect. TPW has heard that the lap was filmed and that it is expected to make its debut on an upcoming Playstation TV episode. You heard it here first!
In addition to the coverage that we will be offering you, you can also watch the 24 hours of Nurburgring from the comfort of your PC. The organisers have very kindly set up a live video stream so that people can see just how exciting this race is. For more info folling the link. The feed will begin at 2.30pm CET on Saturday.
Its just before 7am in the morning, here in Germany, and its time again for the staff at TPW to begin the Marathon of insomnia that is the ADAC 24H De Renen, or to you and me: The Nurburgring 24 hour race. We traveled down to the Nurburgring on Thursday morning and drove through the night to arrive at the circuit at a nice and early 8am yesterday. The Team on site this year will be hoping to bring you regular updates throughout the race from around the circuit. As Today is qualifying we will be focusing on how our friends at Nissan (RJN Motorsport) and the boys over at Aston Martin are getting on. The Big race itself begins at 3pm CET on Saturday, and we will be keesing you updated througout the weekend.span class=”fullpost”>In between then and now several smaller races are taking place along with the final preperations for the teams. The image above was caught yeaterday during one of the Mini Challenge races. These little cars really were flying!
RJN took two Nissan 350Z’s to the Nurburgring for a shake down test and VLN race prior to the 24 Hours of Nurburgring.The brand new VLN Auto Zeitung and Power Car 350Z had its first roll out on the Grand Prix Circuit Friday 25th April, it immediately proved to be as fast as last year’s GT4 type car and the drivers adapted very well to the right hand drive configuration. Both cars retired with minor mechanical problems but the Auto Zeitung car driven by Holger Eckhardt and Harald Muller was stranded at Flugplatz and could not be retrieved until the end of the race. 
The black GT2 car driven by Kurt Thiim, Vincent Vosse and Alex Buncombe was retired as a precautionary measure due to engine misfire after 2 laps but had been timed at 9.07 min in qualifying which equated to third in 3.5 litre SP6 category. All the drivers indicated that a sub 9 min lap is now very close.The team are now very much looking forward to the 24 hr race on May 25th.
Fastlane Daily Autoblog.com
